Stabilizer



Aug. 25, 1931. w. w. HARTMAN STABILIZER Filed April- 2, 195o FIC-1.2

N A m M M .n m M l m INVTOR.

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A TTORNEY FIEL? Patented' Aug. z5, 1931 wulnmjr WALTER m'rMN, or ios'ANELrseALmonNm-"l I Amana@ um April' 2, 193,0. 1semi VNo.' 446x715., f

' i 'This invention relates to 'a device'that il particularly usefulw in -deepr oil Wells and has for `its objectto'provide a good bearing and stabilizer for well tubing in well casing,

.- 5 and alsrnin the'smallersizesf-agood bearing and stabilizer for' the sucker rods in the Well tubing. l In pmnping `deep oil Wellsit is the usual pizuztice to run alongstringof tubing down .11) through the Well casinglinto the oil,vanld 'through this tubing passesv 'the string of 's|uf:kerrods that reciprocate and .transmit the pumpingdforcefrom the surface of the earth .to the "pump lwhich is located at the v15 bottom ofthe tubing andsucker rods. The pump cylinder is carried `and lattached to the `:bottom end ofthe tubing, while thel pistonf is attachedJ to: 'the bottom lendof the 'suckerfroda l ,50 During the pumping opcrationlthe sucker 4rodsnot only 'movejup and down in the tubing. this being` the normal and4 intended pum ing operation, but in addition there 1s an a normal'and 4unintended up and down ..25 movement. of the tubino in the Well casing,

sometimes c'alle l"'bre'ath1ng, this latter movement being smallaiidy almost imperceptible near the top of the Swell, but large and no ticeable toward the bottom of the well Aes- 3V pecially in deep Wells Where the. depth ofthe pump is very great. This abnormal movement of the tubing is accounted for, among other things, partl by the back and forth slapping of the tu ing in the well casing,

5' and partly by the alternate stretching and unstretching of'the long stringy of tubing :1s-'fthe wefiglitofthe "rising oil column isalternately shfted"fromv.-the foot-valveat tacliedjto the bottom ofA the'tubing, tothe 4t? piston",V and b'aclagain; during -`the normal alteratin's" of the; pump stroke.' y

"'Slinde' it'is' common for deep vvells to'ibmore` crooked thaniis -`commonly supposed, with; often'several reversals of thel crook on ...45 the' my dawn; itr 'follows 'that the welly miel ing vvill'lean'and press 'against the 'crooked wel-l casing' 'iii thel vvicinity of each croolfr,V and'in 'they vsaine: vicinity the sucker rod Will1 lean "press against the tubingbecause SQ tliela'tter is pushed into al crooked line` by sr-.ckerv rods thec'rooks in" th'well' cashie- Vlffheixtfl'ie. lar e4 number of suchplaces vatywhich lthe 'suc er rods press 'againstthet'ubing andthe y ing, and -1t 4is rzerri'embereldA thatthe #Weights and pressures ofgthese` parts again'stfeach otheris Very great, itpis apparent thattheto wearing action at all these placesfof'contact is large and that costly repairs andfacoidents naturally (result therefrom. f i As previousl findicated,`it is'the 'object .-1 and purpose vo this' inventionto eliminate '65 orI at least greatly'- reduce, -the Vtrouble "and expense arising `frorn"'this source; andthis is accomplished 'by providing an "l eliicient bearing and centralizer vvhichkeepsf.."thef. tubing l'off the well casing, 'andf thev sucker 70 rOdS vff the .tubinglhd by. rovdng. very good bearing metal andy sur ace at'th places where vthe 'sliding and A`friction?occuvrsQ the Wear on jthe Well' casing, Well? tl'lb'irig,l and is reduced y tofja( I.negligible- 75 amount. f The problemy 'of 'cons ructin'gandusing such a bearingand' centralijzer both onrtlie .tubing and sucker rods is' feornplic at )e .d by' the vfact that these members are; upset'gatl the `80 ends so` that thev bearings couldgnotbe slip.- pedon over the ends in theusual manner, but this problem 'I havesolv'edf splitting the entire device lengthwise"along'itslaxis so `that its ,f itta'clm'ientl to they tubes 'rods 85 can be made` vvithout iin'paring'the. g od quality 'ofbearing providedgf- Myijfcon'stifucf tion also. makes it'polssibyle't 'veiy lquickly` attac-hand detachthed'evi, y. '0;,the'-t ing; or rod.; wheevei; necesa-iii y 0' i Other lobjects"fof `inverlrtionf,`narid-,be efits-v w. be derived therefrom.' willA be made .dat r inl 'the course of ythe;ff llovviiig detailedfjde; vscri tion and c lairna.y and .fby consideration Qf .t e appendeddravvings.k

and bearing detached from the tubing. Fig.

p on line .X7-X7, Fig. 1, looking in the direction of the arrows.

Referring to Fig. 1, reference numeral 1 represents the conventional well casing through which pass well tubing 2 and sucker rod 3,.it being understood that these members continue into the earth to a great de th, often several thousand feet, although on y a ver small portion of the length is shown in t ese drawings. The various tubing sectionsare joined together by the conventional tubing collars or couplings 3', and it will be noticed that near their ends, and for a substantial distance therefrom, the tubing sections are upset to enlarged diameter as indicated b reference numeral 4 in the drawings. This detail is best illustrated in thc enlarged view, Fig. 5,'and it is of course understood that the reason for the upset is to reinforce the tubin under the threads 5 where it screws into t 1e coupling 3.

Fig. 4 illustrates a frequent condition encountered prior to the advent of this invention. Owing to the crookedness of the well, the tubing 2 is over to one side of the well casing 1, the coupling 3 actually bearin and pressing against' casing 1. Because o the continuous up and and down movement of the tubing and collar, due to stretchin as previously described, or other cause, an since both the casing and coupling are steel and therefore wear rapidly on each other, the casin wears thin as indicated at 6, and the cou mg similarly wears thin as shown hould this wearing go further, the casing may be perforated with a hole, which might permit water to enter the well and s oil the oil. This is very serious because t e well casing cannot be removed from the v well to determine the location of the hole, and the patching of same is therefore very difficult. If the wear on the tubing coupling continues, several serious conse ucnces may -arise from this source also, sucl as loss of pumping production by leakage if the couplin is cut through, and even the parting oft e tubing by excess weakening of the coupling, whlch would allow the tubing tov fall to the bottom of the hole with possibly very serious damage.

My bearing and protector, which is best shown in Figs.V 1 and 2, prevents or at least greatly reduces all this, and tends to hold the tubing central in the casing, or at least sufficient-ly so to prevent the tubing collar 3 from wearing on casing 1.

My device comprises a plurality of metallic spring like members 8 and two end members 9. These end members 9 are preferably of sleeve.like construction, either short 01' long as I have shown them, and they must be. held separated from each other, and in substantial axial alignment with each other. This can be done in many ways, but as a simple direct means of construction I like to accomplish it by fastening springs 8 direct to the end members by means of rivets 10, or any other suitable fastening. It will be noticed in Fig. 5, and in Fig. 7 that the springs 8 are set into grooves 11 in the end members so that the outside surface of the spring is flush with the outside surface of the end" member as indicated by reference numerals 12 and 13, respectively, Fig. 7. It will also be noted that the inside head 14 of the rivet stops short of the inside surface 15 of the end member, for reasons that will presently appear.

WVhen installed in the well as shown in Fig. 1, the end members slidably embrace the well tubing 2 between the upset or enlarged tubing ends 4 and couplings 3. The spring arms 8 press out with suitable force against well casing 1, the friction between these springs and the casing being such that during the continuous up and down move-- ment of the tubing 2, all or nearly all of the movement ltakes place between this tubing and the end members 9, and ractically no movement occurs between tlie spring arms 8 and casing 1. Obviously my device centralizes the tubing in the well casing, thereby Vpreventin conditions such as shown in Fig. 4, and al wear between the tubing 2, or coupling 3', and casing 1 is eliminated which results in considerably benefitting the well in many ways.

Since the movement now occursl however between tubing 2 and my end members 9, I prefer to make these end members of some very good bearing material, especially some material that will wear Well against steel. Various kinds of bushings and anti-friction arrangements could be inserted in the end members 9 for this purpose, but in practice I get good results by making these end membersy 9 of a good grade of bearing met-al, preferably bronzel because of its strength and excellent wearmg quahtles against steel.

For the purpose of "distinguishing it from other parts and features, one portion 9 of end member 9 may be described as the bearing portion, for the reason 'that its internal cylindrical surface 15 is the place where the bearing friction is taken against the well tubing 2. I prefer to machine this surface l15 to give a nice bearing fit with the exterior surface 16 of tubing 2, and the tolerance or clearance between surfaces 15l and 16 should be as little as practicable, -as this naturally improves the life of the bearing. Since thel rivets 10, usually of steel, do vnot come flush with the inner bearing surface 15, see Fi 7, these rivets will not rub against the tubing, but will permit all rubbi to occur between the bronze surface 15, an the steel tubing surface 16 which will wear a very lon time before the rivet heads 14 are reach extremely rare cases where trouble from the steel rivet heads may arise, bronze rivets, or other fastening, can be substituted for the steel rivets.

In view of this nice bearing relationship that is desired between my end members 9 and tubing 2, it is obvious that the upset enlarged end portions 4 of the tubing, create diliiculties. If the cylindrical bearing surface 15 in my end members, were made lar e enough to pass over the upset ends 4 of t e tubing, the value ofthe bearing against the normal sized tubing surface f 16 would be seriously impaired, ecause the arc ofbearing contact would be too much reduced, and the rate of wear would be much greater than with the construction which I have invented. For this reason, itis an im rtant and essential feature of my invention that my bearing device should bein some way split in a lengthwise direction, so that my device can be in some way o ened, or separated, to permit direct attac ment over the normal tubing surface 16, instead of havin to slide it down over the enlarged ends 4 o the tubing. This splitting of the dveice can be accomplished in various ways, either by splitting it down one side only, or by splitting it in two or more places, so as to produce two or more distinct parts. which are entirely separable from each other. Toaccomplish this, I have obtained very good- 'results with the construction shown in theV drawings. I have s lit clear through the device, so that the eng members 9 each comprise two separate parts to be fastened together at two separate laces 17 and 18, respectively. Any Suitab e mode of fastening at these places could be used, and .one t pe of fastemng could be used at 17, and anot er kind at 18, but for purposes of simplicity I prefer to use the same' sort of fastening at both places, and I have found a hinged construction as shown in the figures to be very satisfactory. This consists in forming the edge where the joint comes with alternate and interlocking grooves and lugs, 19 and 20 on the oneside, and 19 and 20', respec tively, on the other side. A cotter or other suitable pin 21 is then sli ped through hole 22 so as to pin the lugs an grooves together. By removmg the pin from' one joint 18, from both end members, the device can be ,swung open to embrace the tubing, as indimoved from joint 17 as well as 18, then the two portions of the device could b'e com-v plete y se arated from each other and placed Varound t e normal tubing surface, heilig precise details of construction by which this v opening and closing of the device can be procured, can vary extensively, without de- .parting from the spirit of my invention.

In so far as m device is attached to the tubing at the sur ace of the earth, and must then be pushed down to considerable depth through well casing 1, it is obvious that there must be a good stop arrangement on the tubing so as to keep my device on the correct tubing joint, and prevent its slipping along from joint to joint. The upset end 4 of the tubing joint cannot be used as a satisfactory stop for the reason that it is tapered at the'A lace 23, Fig. 5, where the upset blends down to the normal tubing surface 16. If it were attempted to use this ta ered portion` 23 as a stop, the bearing mem er 9 would ften'd too often to bind on this taper, and m device would ride up and down with the tu ing, causing wear between springs 8 and casing 1, instead of carrying the friction where it is intended, namely in the bearing portion of the end members. To overcome this objection I use some sort of end stopl member, or stop portion, in connection wit either one or bot of my end members 9, for the purpose of s anning over the enlarged upset tubing en 4, to make stop contact with the tubing coupling 3. This stop portion of the end member can of course be of any suitable form of construction, and can either be an integral part of the end member, or can be attached thereto in some suitable manner. In the drawings this stop portion is designated by reference numerals 24. As indicated, IV prefer to make this integral with the end members, but this is not essential, and good results can be obtained by other .expedients, including for instance the extendingof the springs 8 beyond the bear- .ing portion of the end members sulliciently to serve as a stop against 'collar 3. What-v ever expedient is used, an essential feature of this sto is that the radialdistance from the axis o the device Y-Y, see Fig. 5, to the inside contour .25 of the sto ortion should be larger than the'radial) distance from this sameaxis Y-Y to the interior V 17. In other words, my

`of the tube and pump cylindrical bearing surface 15 of the end member. In other words, referring to Fig. 5, the dimension A for the stop should be larger than the dimension B for the bearing surface 15. The object of this is to insure that the stop 24 will clear the enlarged tubin end 4 so as to contact as a stop against tuing colla-r 3. I also like to make these stops 24 of somewhat curved or arched contour, approximately paralleling the cylindrical bearing surface 15 though larger, as thisI arch construction of the stop givesl it increased strength.

In general it is desirable to keep all parts of my device, except the outwardly bowed portion of my spring arms 8, within a restricted external diameter not exceeding the external diameter of tubing coupling 3. That is, excepting for the bowed part of my s ring arms, I keep my construction suc t at when assembled on the tubing no part projects further from the center o? the tube than the outside surface of tubing coupling 3. This is because the clearance between tubing 2 and well casing 1 is often quite small, and occasionall a wash pipe must be slipped down throug this casing for the purpose of dislodging sand or other obstruction that may in some way have otten into this space near the bottom oft e well to more or less cement the tubing into the well casing, which prevents ulling or removal for repairs. When such wash pipe is let down, it is important that it should go ast my bearing and centering device as free y as it passes the couplings 3, and this is practically insured by the construction' indicated above. For the same reason I'bevel oil? the ends 26 of the end members 9 so that the wash pipe can easily pass over same.

I leave a moderate space 27, bet-Ween stop portions 24, so that can be had to the cotter see Fig. 3, easy access 4 in 21 during opening and closing of the evice.

Also as indicated in Fig. 7, I prefer to give the spring arms 8 an external curved contour 28 to give fuller contact with well casing 1. From the same figure, it will also be noticed that my hinged joint 17 is eifected without in any way increasing the radial thickness of the end members above the normal thickness at places beyond the joint. The same is of course also true for the other joint 18, which is substantially the saine as method of jointing vintroduces no projections or .obstructions that might interfere with the wash pipe. The sprin s 8 are of course resilient and will collapse cear down till they touch the tubing, if necessary. In other words if the well casing 1 should ever be collapsed while tubing 2 were in the well equipped with a series of my bearing devices, the tubing and bearings could be pulled up through the col .like to make lapsed restriction, provided of course that the latter were not so great as to prevent the passage even of the tubing coupling 3. In other words, my bearin device would set u no greater resistance than the couplings 3 when passing such restriction, because no part of my bearing device is of greater diameter than couplings 3', excepting my springs 8, and these will collapse till they touch the tubing if necessary.

Although the drawings show my bearing device attached only between the tubing 2 and well casing 1, it will of course be readily understood without detailed illustration in the drawings, that the same device, only smaller, can be attached as a bearing guide between the sucker rod 3 and tubing 2. Fig. 3 illustrates diagramatically the use of my device in this connection between thel sucker rods and'tubing, reference numeral 29 bein used to indicate same. When applied to the sucker rod 3 however, the sto portions 24 are often found unnecessary fldr the reason that the upset ends 30 of the sucker rods, which as is well understood form their own box and pin coupling, are fairly square. at the shoulders 31 so that a projecting stop member such as is shown at 24 is not r uired.

f only three centralizing arms 8 are used, instead of four or more, then two of these three arms-may be rigid, and it is only necessary for one of them to have the resilient spring-like action as this is suilicient to erfectly centralize the bearing. Ordinari y I all. the spring arms 8 resilient however, as this more nearly insures that the device can be pulled up out ofthe well even thou h quite a serious collapse of the well may ave occurred.

Quite -apart from the usefulness of my de- -vice as a bearing to overcome wear, it is found in practice to produce another benefit from the mere fact that it stabilizes the tubin 2 in casing 1, and the sucker rods 3 in tu ing 2. Naturally. if my centralizers are not used, both the sucker rods and tubing slap around considerably between themselves and between the casin walls, and though this would have no noticeable detrimental efect in shallow wells, nevertheless in very deep wells it has the bad effect of considerably reducing the daily production of oil therefrom.. For instance where there are several thousand feet of sucker rods and tubing between the surface of the earth and the pump barrel at the bottom of the tubing, the back and forth slapping of so much tubing and rod shortens the effective stroke length in the pump barrel at the bottom of the tube. This is on the obvious principle that the tortuous and curved path of the rods, set up by the slapping, shortens up the total depth that the same rods would reach to if they hung ,entirely straight without slapping. In other words, if the stroke of the rods werel fifty inches at thesurface of the earth, the stroke of the pump piston actuated at the bottom ofthe rods might be reduced to only forty inches, or less, the re'- duction being represented by the slapping action referred to. In so far as my -device has a distinct stabilizing action which tends t reduce this slap, it 1s found in practice that the installation of my invention in a well not previously equip ed therewith occasionally results in a su stantial increase in the daily production of oil, this increase sometimes being as much as or more which of course is 'an important benefit in addition to the greater protection and durability to the well by -reduced wear of the parts as described in detail above.

In view of the extensive description hereinbefore given, it is believed that the construction and mode of operation of my device is entirely clear.

Various modifications and rearrangements e of the construction can of course be made without de arting from the spirit of my invention, w lich is'not limited except by restrictions found in the appended claims.

I claim:

ing from at least one of said lbearing members, the entire end-stop being at a greater distance from the axis of said device than said interior bearing surface of said bearing member is from ths axil of said device.

4. In a bearing and centralizing guide for a cylindrical member having a long normal cylindrical portion of smaller outside diameter than the outside diameter of the enlarged cylindrical end portion of ysaid member, the combination of two bearin members spaced apart from each other an adapted to provide guiding and bearin su port vfor said normal portion of sai gulded c lindrical member, a pluralit of spring-li e metallic centralizing mem rs, and an end-stop for said guide, said endstop being adapted to pass freely over the enlarged cylindrical end portion of .said guided member.

In testimony whereof I have executed these presents.

WILLIAM WALTER HARTMAN.

1. In e device ef the kind described, the

combination of a plurality of spring-like metallic centralizing members, two bearing members spaced apart from and` in axial alignment with each other, each of said bearing members presenting an interior subi stantially cylindrical bearing surface, said device also having an end-sto projecting beyond one of sai bearing sur aces, the entire end-stop being at a greater distance 'from the axis of said device than the vsaid bearing surface is from the axis of said device.

2. In a device of the kind described, the combination of a pluralit of spring-like me- -tallic centralizing mem rs, two bearing members spaced apart from and in axial alignment with each other, each of said bearing members presenting an interior substan tially cylindrical bearingsurface, and each of said bearing members being fastened to said sprin -like metallic centralizin members, said evice also having curved eng-stops pro jecting from said bearing members, the entire .inside contour of said curved end-stopsbeing at a greater distance from the axis of said device than the said bearing surface is from the axis of said device.

3.111 e device ef the kind deeeribed, the

combination of a plurality of spring-like metallic centralizing members, two bearing members spaced apart from andv in axial alignment with each other, each of said bearing members presenting an interior bearing surface andbeing made in two separable parts to permit the opening and closing of said device, andan end-stop project- 

